24 ' STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



HARVESTING THE BEET CROP. 



BY C. H. DERHAM, OWOSSO. 



In harvesting the beets, I take eight rows and throw the tops one way 

 and roots the other, making one large row. Bushel crates are then strnng 

 along by the side of the row, as they are brought back from being emptied 

 by the haulers, so as to make it convenient for the topper to get them. 



I put a shingle at each pile with the name of parties cutting. The hauler 

 moves the shingle from pile to pile, giving each shingle the credit for the 

 number of bushels in that pile, so that at night each cutter knows exactly 

 the number of bushels he has topped. I pay one and one-half cents per 

 bushel for pulling and topping beets after they have been loosened. I 

 do not like knives that hack the beets all to pieces. Use twenty-five cent 

 butcher knives; they cut the beets evenly and do not waste much. I 

 would not advise the use of jack-knives. In drawing the beets to the 

 car, or to the pile, I found that I can do it one-fourth cheaper by the 

 use of crates than without them. 



I always draw my beets to the lane, putting them in long piles and 

 covering them with two inches of beet tops, and after I get througli 

 pulling and before the cold weather, I take a wagon and team and cover 

 them about six inches thick, taking pains to have the piles run north and 

 south so that the sun can strike the pile on one side in the morning 

 and the other in the afternoon. In covering the beets, commence at the 

 lower part and lap as you go up, instead of commencing at the top, 

 and letting the rain run down among them. Make the tops lap over one 

 another. 



Every farmer in Shiawassee county should aid the sugar beet indus- 

 try by putting in at least two or three acres. This will benefit a class 

 that cannot find work anywhere else, such as women, girls and boys. 



There might be enough sugar beets raised in Shiawassee county to 

 support two factories. 



